Just minutes after Donald Trump fired Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, the president was blunt about his long-standing differences with his former secretary of state. “We disagreed on things,” Trump told reporters outside the White House, specifically pointing to friction over the Iran nuclear agreement. “I wanted to either break it or do something, and he felt a little bit differently,” Trump said. “We were really not thinking the same.” Trump reportedly had considered firing Tillerson for months. But the decision - and the abrupt way it was executed - represents a dramatic end to a strained relationship. Tillerson learned of his firing by an early-morning Trump tweet, according to Steve Goldstein, undersecretary of state. White House officials disputed that notion, and promptly fired Goldstein. The move left some of Trump's staunchest defenders with mixed feelings. “It’s all very Trumpian,” said James Carafano of the conservative Heritage Foundation, who helped staff the State Department as a member of Trump’s transition team. “When the president makes changes, he just abruptly makes them.” During his 14 months at the State Department, Tillerson had numerous policy differences with Trump - and the friction frequently played out in public. The animosity peaked in October, when news surfaced that Tillerson reportedly called Trump a “moron” following a July Pentagon meeting. Tillerson never explicitly denied the account. Tillerson also publicly disagreed with Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. He reportedly opposed Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And Tillerson sometimes took a tougher stance than Trump on Russia — including this week, when he blamed Moscow for a suspected nerve agent attack in Britain. In return, Trump on numerous occasions publicly undermined his top diplomat, including in October when he tweeted Tillerson was “wasting his time” trying to negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. When Trump ultimately made his decision last week to... According to the above context, answer the following question. How long after Trump fired Tillerson, did he explain why?

OPTIONS:
- under ten minutes
- a few days after
- not enough information
- a few hours after

Answer: under ten minutes


SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — The conservative leader of South Korea’s main opposition party on Thursday spoke out against the upcoming U.S.–North Korea summit. He also voiced concern that political considerations are driving U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in to compromise joint security for more false denuclearization promises from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “I am rather pessimistic about whether this negotiation will work out well or not. The only means for North Korea to maintain its regime is its nuclear program. The moment that North Korea gives up its nuclear program, and the moment it opens up to reform, the Kim Jong Un regime will collapse,” said Hong Joon-pyo, the chairman of the Liberty Korea Party. On June 12, Trump and Kim will meet in Singapore to try to reach an agreement to end the North’s threatening nuclear weapons program in exchange for economic incentives and security guarantees that could include a formal peace treaty to replace the armistice that has been enforced since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Many South Korean conservatives had voiced strong support for Trump’s “maximum pressure” polices to force Pyongyang to unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons through tough international sanctions in place that ban 90 percent of the country’s trade, and the threat of military action. But they have been troubled by recent statements coming from the Trump administration indicating the United States may be willing to soften its demands for the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement (CVID) of the North’s nuclear program before offering any sanctions relief. Hong is worried that Trump may seek a deal that would quickly end the North’s intercontinental ballistic missile program that directly threatens the U.S., and leave the regional nuclear threat to be resolved later. Trump seems overly intent to achieve a diplomatic breakthrough, Hong said, to shift the media focus away from the ongoing special prosecutor investigation he is facing over Russia’s... According to the above context, answer the following question. Who is trying to achieve diplomatic breakthrough to shift focus from the Russia investigation according to Hong?

OPTIONS:
- Trump
- not enough information
- Clinton
- Kim Jong Un

Answer: Trump


Jimbob Blakey wasn't so much given birth to as clambered right out of his mother himself. He weighed in at almost thirteen pounds, came ready-fitted with a shock of fat black hair and a couple of razor teeth. Jimbob's folks loved him like most folks love their little ones, maybe more. They'd been trying so hard for a child, suffered more mid-term miscarriages than the ewes they shuttled off to market most Thursdays. They dressed him in a one-year babygro and took him home to their hill farm. They fought to get up nights and give him his milk. His teeth made breast-feeding impossible. They sat hours gazing down in his cot. They dressed him fine and took him to their church and gave their thanks. Showed him off like the proud parents they were. Others cooed and smiled. But they never asked to hold. They gave thanks the Blakeys were happy, and that the monkey-baby had not been born to them. Jimbob's folks never gave a second thought that their boy might be different. The first Spring he walked, he stomped the moors in his welly-boots helping herd the pregnant ewes down in-by. He copied his father, kicking and cuffing at the stragglers, when the flock was returned to the hills in May. As Jimbob grew, his hair became thicker, his arms longer. His head shrunk down on his shoulders. At check-ups, nurses fixed smiles and pronounced him healthy. Doctors said, 'he'll make you a strapping lad.' His mother smiled, her heart swelled. When he was three, she sent him to nursery. She wanted him to mix with other kids. To taste life off the hard hills. She said, 'it'll do him the world of good.' Jimbob hated leaving the farm. He clung to his mother. She drove away, blinking tears. On the third day, she took a phone call. 'It's Jimbob,' they said. 'He's scaring the other kids.'The truth hit Jimbob's mother like a hammer. According to the above context, answer the following question. What did Jimbob's mother do after the nursery called?

OPTIONS:
- not enough information
- She told him to get along with the other kids more.
- She picked him up
- She scolded the nursery for not integrating him more.

Answer:
She picked him up